


After Ireland

by orphan_account



Category: Emmerdale, Roblivion - Fandom, robron
Genre: Angst, Family, Forgiveness, Grief, Love, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-25
Updated: 2017-03-25
Packaged: 2018-10-10 14:06:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 961
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10439343
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: When Liv returns from Ireland after her mother's funeral, she moves into her new home at the Mill with Robert and Aaron. Unaware of what's gone on between the two men, she still makes light of her loss. Robert recognizes she's struggling and looks for an opportunity to help her, still fighting for a future for his family.





	

They’d been treading glass around her, ever since she’d got back from Ireland.

Enough things had already been broken between them; broken hearts, broken trust, broken promises. There were the broken records of words repeated too often. Black vinyl shards of their greatest love hits.

Now it was back to basics, back to who made the breakfast, who did the shopping, who made the first move at night when they reached, painfully, for each other in the dark. For now, they made love without words.

They couldn’t let go. Robert wouldn’t. Ever. Let go. He would fix this, reforge this broken family.

Liv had shrugged when they’d met her off the plane. It was Aaron who’d spilt tears, pulling her into a hug, a hand on her hair. Robert had driven them all home. Liv had walked around the Mill, pink cheeked, telling Aaron which walls she’d painted, how she and Rob had chosen stuff together, thinking how much he’d like it, checking her brother’s eyes out for sadness.

‘You do like it?’ She’d asked.

‘Yeah, yeah! I love it! Liv. It’s,…, it’s perfect.’ He’d glanced at Robert, who’d looked away.

‘So now we can all be happy, can’t we?’ She’d said, and they’d all agreed.

Later, after Aaron was asleep, Robert had seen the light on under her door. He knocked lightly. Her face was flushed, her eyes were dry, he could smell the vodka.

‘Are you alright, Liv?’

‘Never been better.’ Her chin had gone up. Robert had seen Aaron in her face.

 

A week later he’d come home, mid-afternoon, dropping his keys on the kitchen counter. He’d known for a few days now what she’d been up to.

‘Give me the bottle, Liv. Drinking never helped anything.’

‘That’s rich, coming from you. And I’m not having you pour it down the sink. It cost a lot of money, that.’

‘Another lie. I know you nicked it. I overheard David earlier, complaining in the shop. I should’ve guessed it was you. So, just, come on, hand it over.’

He watched her, timing it perfectly, snatching the bottle away with a single accomplished swipe of his hands, raising his eyes at her in victory as he turned up the bottle, emptying the contents down the plug hole.

‘Oi. Give it back!’

‘I’m not having Aaron coming back from therapy and finding you like this. He’s worried enough about you as it is.’

‘I can look after myself.’

‘Yeah, and you’re doing a good impression of it. So, do you want to talk about it?’

He leant back against the kitchen counter. Liv lifted herself onto the opposite counter, sitting, holding on with her white knuckles, gripping onto the edge.

‘Nothing to talk about,’ she answered.

‘You just lost your Mum, Liv.’

She rolled her eyes.

‘Great. So my Mum died? She was a rubbish Mum, anyway.’

‘You don’t mean that. She was your Mum.’

He watched her turn down the corners of her mouth. More Aaron. ‘And I stood there at that funeral, and I felt absolutely nothing. So, what does that tell ya?’

Robert looked up at the ceiling.

‘You know, my Mum died, too, when I was the same age as you.’

‘Really?’

‘There was an accident, and it was just, well, one day, when you wake up and it’s a normal day, and then, by the evening she’d gone.’

He saw the startled look in her eyes, the spread of pink across her cheeks. He lowered his voice, keeping his eyes on her face.

‘I didn’t know how to feel. I think I was angry, but I was scared too, only, I didn’t realize it at the time.’

‘So how did you cope?’

‘I didn’t. I just bottled it up and then, well, I lashed out, I did other things, ‘ he sighed, ‘…do other things, things that hurt people, people who love me. Maybe I never really got over it at all. I still miss her.’

‘I’m sorry, Robert, I didn’t know.’

‘Liv, you don’t want to end up like me, so deal with it.’

‘You’re not so bad.’

He felt his heart constrict. If she only knew.

She jumped down then, and made as if to go.

‘Well, I don’t miss my Mum.’

But he could hear the doubt in her voice. He moved nearer to her.

‘Liv, she was your Mum, she loved you, and you loved her. You are allowed to grieve, you know?’

Finally the tears started, pooling in her eyes. Robert felt his shoulders falling with relief.

‘I just don’t know how. And even though I’ve got Aaron, now I haven’t got a Mum or a Dad, and it’s just as if I’ve been left all alone. I’m an orphan. It’s so stupid to feel this way.’

 ‘I know, come here.’

Robert wrapped his arms around her, holding her as she sobbed into the fabric of his sweater.

‘You’ll never really lose her, you know, she’ll always be a part of you. How about we buy some flowers tomorrow? We can go for a walk, you, me, Aaron, put them somewhere special, you can choose somewhere peaceful, just for her? What do you think?’

Liv nodded into Robert’s chest.

‘Yeah. I’d like that.’

‘And, you’re not alone, you know, you’ve got Aaron, and he’s not going anywhere.’

Liv leaned back and looked up at him, wiping her eyes with her sleeve.

‘And you? You’re not going anywhere, either?’

He nodded, but he couldn’t answer. They were all grieving really. Now, so much depended on Aaron, on the next few weeks, months maybe. He couldn’t imagine a future without him, but he didn’t know if he would earn his forgiveness. So, he’d waited before, and now that’s what he’d do. He would wait.


End file.
